Mother of All Demons
by Jedi Aeryn
Summary: This is the story you never knew. The truth about Harry’s parents. The reasons things are the way they are. Plenty of Weasley twin mischief, Hermione being clever, Ron being dull… and perhaps even an appearance by LeatherPants!Draco.


Introduction: I hate long chapters. That's just the way I am. Therefore, this story will be divided into an indeterminate number of short chapters. The first few will likely be dull. Bear with me. The title will be explained eventually.  
  
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, LeatherPants!Draco belongs to Cassie Claire, and, besides, I'm too poor to sue.  
  
Rating: Since I don't know how much detail I'll be going into, PG-13, just to be safe.  
  
Summary: The gang heads out early to have a little fun.  
  
Thanks to: Desi, one of my best friends and favorite betas.  
  
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Harry Potter awoke to find two identical, grinning faces staring down at him. He blinked a few times, then rolled his shoulders a bit to stretch them out.  
  
"Geroff!" he growled to them, then shook his head to awaken the still-sleeping thoughts within. He turned his gaze to the window and discovered that it was still dark outside. Irritably, he inquired, "Why'd you wake me up?"  
  
One of the faces- Harry was too disoriented to name its owner- replied, "We're going for a little early-morning flight."  
  
The other added, "Yes. And it's relatively important that we leave before Mum wakes up."  
  
Harry sat up. "Isn't it a little early in the morning to be causing trouble?"  
  
Both twins looked aghast. "Harry, dear chap, it is inever/i too early to be causing trouble!"  
  
The other chimed in, "Poor thing. He isn't thinking clearly."  
  
Harry turned his head to both sides, and his neck popped loudly. His body wasn't yet accustomed to the beds at the Burrow. His voice had lost all traces of tiredness when he spoke again. "Okay. But get out of my room!"  
  
The two boys obliged, and Harry made his way across the room to the closet.  
  
When he emerged from his room, Harry was surprised to find Hermione waiting with Fred, George, and Ron on the landing. As if sensing his unspoken question, the girl whispered, "I wasn't going to come along, but when Fred and George told me what it was they were up to, I couldn't resist."  
  
Harry nodded blankly and wondered what time it was.  
  
The group trekked in silence down to the cloakroom, where each person tossed a light cloak around his or her shoulders. Even in July, early morning air tended to be somewhat nippy. Fred and George motioned them out the door. Harry stepped out onto the dewy grass, followed by Ron and Hermione. To his surprise, propped against the wall outside were five brooms- his Firebolt, and four Nimbus Two-Thousand-and-Ones.  
  
Noting his expression, Fred muttered, "Don't ask."  
  
Harry nodded and grabbed his own broom. The rest of the group took theirs in silence. At Fred and George's lead, the group mounted and kicked off. Once they'd risen above the clouds, Ron let out a whoop of delight and Harry called out, "Fred! George! Either of you care to tell me where we're going?"  
  
Both boys looked back at him- it was odd how they still seemed so much like little boys at the age of eighteen- and grinned.  
  
"No," Fred said.  
  
"Surely you wouldn't want us to spoil your surprise?" George asked mock-incredulously.  
  
"Just settle in," Fred advised. "It's going to be a long flight."  
  
Harry reduced his speed and settled between Ron and Hermione, a position that the former did not seem overly thrilled about. "You know where we're going?" Harry questioned Hermione.  
  
The girl smiled, revealing perfectly white and normally-sized teeth. "Of course. Normally, I would not be a party to one of Fred and George's pranks, but this one seemed too good to pass up. That reminds me. I have a spell to teach you before we get there. You might want to duck." The girl cleared her throat and made an odd motion with her wand, circling it three times then making a vertical slash through the circle. "Chloralis lime!"  
  
Harry, as he'd been instructed, ducked, and a glob of colorant sailed over his back and smashed into Ron's face. It dissipated instantly, but Ron's skin was tinted lime green where the glob had touched it. Hermione giggled, and Harry gaped at his friend.  
  
"It's simple," Hermione instructed, as if Ron weren't suddenly a new color. "You wave your wand like this," the girl demonstrated the circular motion again, "and say 'Chloralis' followed by whatever color you want. Oh, and, since you're male, I made a list to help you out. After all, the average boy can only write down ten colors in a minute, whereas a girl can do fifty-five." Hermione handed Harry a scrap of parchment.  
  
"Cerise? Cerulean? Chartreuse?" Harry tried out the words on the alphabetical list. Skipping down a bit, he continued, "Taupe?"  
  
Hermione giggled. "You have an hour to learn to pronounce them all. I suggest that you make the best of it, because you'll be mad if you're limited to blue and green."  
  
An hour and a half later, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon, Fred and George slowed and dipped beneath the clouds. Hermione, Harry, and Ron followed. Harry gasped at what was below him.  
  
Forbidding black thorn trees formed a dense forest all around a fortress made of black stone. An iron fence, twelve feet high, twisted around the castle. Harry couldn't see clearly from his altitude, but it appeared that the space between the fence and the forbidding walls was occupied by giant thorny vines with giant flowers the color of blood that were large enough to fit a grown man inside them. From the pointed ends of the petals, Harry came to the sickening realization that the flowers were carnivorous, and perfectly capable of eating a grown man. Flying a bit lower around the perimeter, Harry noted that the fortress was devoid of doors and windows, although it had a few towering chimneys. The highest tower jutted up from the center. Set into the stone there was a dragon. It was made of miniscule shards of green glass of varying shades. It's serpentine body twisted all the way around the tower, while the massive wings stretched toward the heavens. The creature's eye, which was made of some kind of jewel Harry had never seen before, glinted silver in the rising sun.  
  
For the first time, Harry saw the building as a whole. Even from his altitude, it was difficult, since the fortress was massive beyond anything Harry had ever dreamt of.  
  
"It's shaped like a 'W'!" he cried out to Hermione, who giggled insanely.  
  
Fred, who had overheard, commented, "Not the brightest flame in the goblet, is he?"  
  
Hermione reached out and smacked the tail of Harry's Firebolt so that he fishtailed and ended facing in the opposite direction. "What the." he started, but Hermione interrupted.  
  
"Look at it now."  
  
Harry did as he was told, his eyebrows furrowed. "It's an 'M'," he said. His eyes flicked over the black trees and the man-eating plants and the green and silver dragon twisted around the tower. His mouth dropped open. "Is this.?"  
  
George grinned wickedly. "Malfoy Manor!"  
  
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," Fred crowed. "Harry, would you do the honors?"  
  
Harry grinned wickedly, then consulted the list Hermione had given him. He pointed his wand directly into the silver eye of the serpent and shouted, "Chloralis. mauve!" A deep pink blob sailed from his wand. The group watched in awe as it flew, landed squarely in the center of the eye, and gave the dragon a much less frightening gaze.  
  
"Wow, Harry," Hermione said in awe. "I honestly didn't think you would have the sense to take out the spy tower first."  
  
Harry coughed. "I did. what?"  
  
"Nevermind," Hermione replied. "As usual, it was sheer luck on your part."  
  
The next hour was highly entertaining, as globs of paint flew from wand tips. Windows became brilliant shades of teal and Spanish orange. Black bricks came to resemble tie-dye, and the dragon on the tower looked quite lovely redressed in lavender. Hermione even knew a spell to fill the gardens with brightly colored balloons. Everyone watched as they settled down over the plants, which snapped ferociously at the intruders, but popped only a few.  
  
Fred sighed contentedly at the finished project. George continued to grin wickedly. Ron sat on his broom, thoroughly disappointed that they were finished so soon. Harry and Hermione surveyed the damage. "It looks like someone got drunk on iTrading Spaces/i," they observed aloud simultaneously, then laughed.  
  
"Well, this will be a fine thing for Prince Draco to come home to. His parents took him to South America for his birthday," Fred informed.  
  
Harry looked at Fred, bewildered. "How do you know that?"  
  
George chimed in, "You mean besides that banner over the door that says 'Happy Birthday, Drakie-poo!'?"  
  
Fred chuckled, then answered, "We have our ways, dear Harry."  
  
"We'd best be off," suggested Ron. "Mum will be waking up soon, and she won't be happy to find us gone."  
  
The others reluctantly agreed, and they headed back to the Burrow. About mid-way back, a thought crossed Harry's mind. "Hermione," he asked, "didn't we just send the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizadry to Hell in a handcart?"  
  
"I certainly would not have agreed to it if we could have been expelled for it. The Choralis Charm is untraceable." Seeing the blank look on Harry's face, she explained, "The Ministry can only determine that it is being used. They cannot determine the source."  
  
George piped up reverently, "Untraceables are the best friend of wizard pranksters like myself."  
  
The rest of the trip expired in relative silence. The quintet arrived back at the Borrow to find Mrs. Weasley standing at the back door looking livid.  
  
"Uh-oh," Ron muttered to Harry. "Looks like this is going to be a long day." 


End file.
